so in December of 2016 my phone went
missing and to anyone who knows me you
also know that I do tend to lose things
so in the past I’ve found my phone in
the refrigerator I have left it behind
at restaurants and I’ve even several
times left it on the hood of my car and
so when I couldn’t find my phone I
thought that I just needed to keep
looking and by the time I was willing to
admit to myself that my phone wasn’t
coming back that it had actually been
stolen I had been waiting for over a
month then I decided that I needed to
wait until his back in the United States
or that it wasn’t in the budget I kept
finding reasons to wait and I waited one
year and four months this amount of time
doesn’t sound that impressive to me
until I started telling people I didn’t
have a phone and for how long and there
was sometimes I got were incredible
people would say things to me like
you’re crazy
I could never do that I couldn’t survive
how do you do it and my favorite
response was from a fourth-grade student
of mine who said well miss Tina you’re
only like 40 years old you’re not even
an old lady yet you should have a cell
phone and I know you’re thinking but no
this wasn’t just from the stereotypical
millennial or Generation X Y Z people in
my life but from each and every person I
encountered and so I started to feel a
little bit
the technological age unicorn and I’m
not exactly wrong according to the Pew
Research Center of internet and
Technology the shocking majority of 95%
of the adult population in the US and
2017 owned a cell phone and 77 percent
5% of the American population that
didn’t have a cell phone I need to put
that in perspective for you by showing
you another study done by the u.s. enter
the u.s. Innovation Center for dairy
where this survey found that the United
States believes that chocolate milk
comes from brown cows adult Americans
because no children took part in this
survey comes from brown cows that don’t
have cell phones just hi where am i and
so for my age bracket of 18 to 29 year
olds the percentage is even higher with
an estimated 100% being cell phone
owners 94% of these being smartphone
owners so 100% were estimated to have a
cell phone in there it was without one
these numbers are for great reason the
benefits of having a cell phone and
particularly a smart phone is having
turn-by-turn directions it’s having
reviews of products when you’re already
at the store we turn to our cell phones
to organize our days to keep us in touch
with friends and family I even have some
students who insist that their cell
phone is their preferred method for
writing their essays I understand these
things that I’m also realistic now cell
phones have the potential for all of
these things that’s not always the
ultimate outcome and when it comes down
to it having this number of self
out there doesn’t actually eliminate the
number of people that don’t know we’re
brown or we’re chocolate milk comes them
even though it probably should so I’m
not here today to demonize phones or to
blame them for the different problems in
our society but what I am here to do is
to share my observations and my
experiences from being in this
technological minority as many of you
could probably guess not having a cell
phone so really weird at first moving to
a new country is extremely difficult and
challenging it’s also beautiful and
rewarding beyond measure but it’s very
difficult and I want you to imagine
actually having to meet anybody because
it’s a small rural farming town in
northern Michigan so imagine going from
a community like this one to the one
here in Santo Domingo when culture shock
was that it’s worse for me I could not
use my phone to help alleviate that
culture shock I couldn’t use it to help
me translate from Spanish to English I
couldn’t use it to help me navigate the
busy streets and while this was really
uncomfortable at first it soon became
more than just a discomfort and began to
feel really isolating I felt the deficit
in my ability to function as an employee
at school where professional
communications would be sent through a
group chats or whatsapp rather than
through email I realize just how often
friends and co-workers would have social
gatherings to which I’d like to think I
would have been invited to if I could
see the text that was sent to my now
non-existent phone and I also felt the
frustration from friends and family
members from home who often communicated
feelings of frustration that I never
seem to be able to respond to them
quickly enough or frequently enough so I
started internalizing all these things
and people would tell me that I just
needed to be found that I you know
something that I needed or that I was
even irresponsible for not having a
phone and I understand
could have helped alleviate many of
these things but I couldn’t help but
wonder many things then one question I
asked was is my cell phone
really the only thing keeping my
relationships with the people in my life
alive and there was one question in
particular that grew which was why do I
feel devalued for not having a cell
phone
I felt really lost and I carried that
question with me for a very long time
and it took me many many many months of
observing and reflecting but I finally
got to the point where when people would
ask me why I didn’t have a cell phone my
answer became less and less because it
was stolen and it became more and more
that I was simply happy or not having
one I noticed that my productivity
improved my patience with people
improved for a long time my cell phone
had been an unrecognized source of
anxiety because up until then I was
never truly able to disconnect from
social situations and as an introvert
that’s extremely important for my mental
and emotional well-being I also felt
that well I still don’t communicate with
my friends and family back home as often
as it should sorry mom I do feel like
the interactions I do have a more
meaningful because for example if I wish
someone a happy birthday at home they
know it’s because I remember that day it
was important to me and I didn’t have to
rely on the notification from Facebook
telling me to remember that day and so
after a long time my question started to
evolve and it changed and it became a
change from why do I feel devalued to
what are the values I see that other
people are trying to add to their lives
by using their cell phones I started
observing constantly and I came up with
several conclusions and the first and
most common reason and the one that I
was always the most guilty of is simply
using your phone to hide or to avoid
what I didn’t have
cellphone to do just that I noticed just
how often the people around me would do
that and there were so many times that I
would be in a conversation with someone
to be left watching them use their phone
I would look up in restaurants and I’d
be the only one not looking at a cell
phone screen not just being in the
restaurant now looking down not looking
at my screen but when students at school
even when I would see them using their
phones that was often to avoid getting
to work but then I would also see
teachers and staff meetings and they
would be on their cell phones while
complaining about how the students
couldn’t pay attention and it’s
incredible because what we need to
realize is that when we choose not to
come to terms with our boredom with
impatience with awkwardness with all
those feelings that we perceive as being
negative when we don’t exercise those
muscles we lose the ability to use them
and they go limp this is a scene very
familiar and that’s in order to get a
view of the stage it can feel like an
absolute battleground as a photographer
at these events sometimes I feel
incapable of doing my job because I’m
constantly having to work around
people’s phones and sometimes even an
iPad screen I under arts degree was in
graphic design and photography and so I
do understand the drawing of photography
in order to capture a moment but we also
understand the value of being somewhere
in person and experience and
experiencing it in real life so for
example this TED talk each of you has
chosen to purchase the ticket and to be
here in real life even though these will
be available online for free but each of
you came here early in the morning on a
Saturday you’re in these seats and you
wanted to see firsthand what it
our school community has to offer the
world so why do we take photos
excessively to the point of
inconveniencing others or ultimately
missing the experience ourselves instead
of ask people who are doing just that
why do you feel the need to do so and
often the answer is because it’s
important it’s something that I want to
remember and ultimately they it’s
something that they feared that they’ll
forget what they wanna do is they’re
trying to capture those moments and keep
them even if they’re not exactly living
them take a look at this room and what
you’ll see is the home of a person who
has obsessive compulsive hoarding
disorder the environmental mental and
genetic processes that go into a
disorder of this type is extremely
complex and each person experiences this
disorder in a different way popularly
collected materials between many of
these cases were newspapers and when
they were asked why do you collect
something so mundane that many of us
might even overlook the response is
shockingly similar and they say that
they feel if they keep that newspaper
that they’re somehow able to better
remember what was going on that day in
their life and they fear that if they
don’t take that newspaper if they get
rid of it but there’s somehow letting go
of something that they won’t remember it
well they also fear forgetting so what I
encourage you to do is although we all
fear forgetting especially those most
important moments you need to trust your
mind that if you’re actually
experiencing something it is something
that you will remember and so please
take your photos but don’t trade what is
your real experience for what’s only
just two keepsake another thing that I
hear very often when I ask people why
they’re using their phone excessively
and that’s you know this is for
Instagram this is for Facebook this is
for you know insert social media here
and I understand this because social
media remains my primary way of
communicating with friends and family
back home for example this is my nephew
Austin and since I’ve been abroad
unfortunately I missed his birth I
missed his entire just about his entire
first year of life and just last weekend
I miss his first birthday party and this
saddens me greatly but one of the
beautiful things of social media is that
even though he lives 3202 kilometers
away I can still feel like I’m a part of
his life and I can see and watch him
grow but I also understand from talking
with his really tired mom that what I
see us a social media filter I don’t
have to see the Tooting fevers the
sleepless nights the dirty diapers the
temper tantrums and all of the other
reasons why I don’t have children its
natural for us to try and project their
best selves on social media but the
problem happens when what we’re
projecting is different than what we’re
living and then the challenge becomes
trying to prove who you are rather than
just be or live who we are we post a
photo about ourselves working out so we
can prove to others that we work out we
post our best selfie out of 40 to prove
how good we can look and we try to
convince everyone that that’s how we
look all the time and we’ll post a photo
of the dinner we cooked last night to
prove how good we are at cooking even if
it tasted terrible those a study
conducted by the the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine and they
did a study about the effects of social
media and one of their studies concluded
that the more often a person was two
more hours a person reported rather
being on social media the more likely
they were also to report feelings of
depression and anxiety and that there is
the paradox of social media where we
feel that we can share whatever we want
whenever but often what we trade is
vulnerability we live in a constant
state of connection but at the same time
feel disconnected I still remember to
the state a phone number that I needed
to call to reach my friend coil because
if we wanted to talk we had to actually
dial the number on our landline phones
and have a conversation when I say that
to students now they tell me that
they’ve got feelings of fear or anxiety
even at the prospect of having to call
someone on the phone or even have to
talk to someone in real life other
actions are getting shorter they’re
getting less vulnerable and what I want
us all to realize is that social media
and our cell phones are altering the way
that we interact with one another and
this technology grew so quickly and so
pervasively that we probably didn’t even
realize just how much on snapchat it’s
notorious for having being able to send
really short pieces of information at a
time
Twitter limits your content to two
hundred and eighty characters a new
feature of snapchat now is something
called streaks and for those of you who
aren’t snapchat users for each day that
you connect with someone on the media
you earn a day in your streak and so
this has become something that people
are very proud of they want to continue
their streaks for as long as possible
and so students have reported to me that
when they lay in bed at night they
realize oh my gosh I’m going to lose my
street I haven’t talked to this person
today I need to do so so in a panic and
without having to bother getting up and
turning on the light they’ll take a
photo like this one a black screen and
send that to the roads they look like
best friends with a two hundred three
days streak but what are they really
saying to each other and really is it
any wonder why this human being might
feel
Lane feeling the pressure of having to
communicate with someone but not getting
any of the benefits that a more
meaningful social interaction could have
provided the future of cell phones is
really understanding that they’re not
going anywhere
and as far as I can tell technology like
Apple watches or Google glasses making
it even more convenient more integrated
in our lives instead what we need to do
is as individuals and as a society we
need to consider more safe and
responsible ways of using our technology
to better our lives we need to start
changing our mindset and more closely
connecting consider cell phone usage to
that of dieting or physical exercise and
only eat cookies every meal of every day
there’s no one on earth that would
recommend that as a healthy diet and
that’s because the key is balance we
need to understand when we need to draw
their lines and when these wonderful
things are not so wonderfully affecting
our health what is what we’re saying to
each other really just black phone
screens it took me one year and four
months of personal observations and
reflections to decide that once again
having a phone was the correct decision
for me
they even now I have a cell phone but
it’s not data enabled because that’s not
something I need every hour of every day
I know that I don’t need it all the time
it’s not healthy for me well I don’t
suggest or I understand that many of you
guys this isn’t a great option for you
to get rid of your phone that might be
too big of a jump you can start really
simply and reflect and consider why it
is that you’re taking out your phone are
you hiding or avoiding are you holding
memories you’re afraid that you’ll
forget something or are you projecting
your life rather than simply living it
so I’ll encourage you guys to be
participants and observers so use your
phones use social media take take
pictures
play Angry Birds when you’re bored in
the grocery store line but also consider
why it is that you’re doing that and
also consider all the things that you
could potentially be sacrificing each
and every time you take out your phone
and one last thing that you can do is
the next time you leave your cell phone
and lose it in the cushions of your
couch maybe you could just let it stay
lost at least for a little while thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
missing and to anyone who knows me you
also know that I do tend to lose things
so in the past I’ve found my phone in
the refrigerator I have left it behind
at restaurants and I’ve even several
times left it on the hood of my car and
so when I couldn’t find my phone I
thought that I just needed to keep
looking and by the time I was willing to
admit to myself that my phone wasn’t
coming back that it had actually been
stolen I had been waiting for over a
month then I decided that I needed to
wait until his back in the United States
or that it wasn’t in the budget I kept
finding reasons to wait and I waited one
year and four months this amount of time
doesn’t sound that impressive to me
until I started telling people I didn’t
have a phone and for how long and there
was sometimes I got were incredible
people would say things to me like
you’re crazy
I could never do that I couldn’t survive
how do you do it and my favorite
response was from a fourth-grade student
of mine who said well miss Tina you’re
only like 40 years old you’re not even
an old lady yet you should have a cell
phone and I know you’re thinking but no
this wasn’t just from the stereotypical
millennial or Generation X Y Z people in
my life but from each and every person I
encountered and so I started to feel a
little bit
the technological age unicorn and I’m
not exactly wrong according to the Pew
Research Center of internet and
Technology the shocking majority of 95%
of the adult population in the US and
2017 owned a cell phone and 77 percent
5% of the American population that
didn’t have a cell phone I need to put
that in perspective for you by showing
you another study done by the u.s. enter
the u.s. Innovation Center for dairy
where this survey found that the United
States believes that chocolate milk
comes from brown cows adult Americans
because no children took part in this
survey comes from brown cows that don’t
have cell phones just hi where am i and
so for my age bracket of 18 to 29 year
olds the percentage is even higher with
an estimated 100% being cell phone
owners 94% of these being smartphone
owners so 100% were estimated to have a
cell phone in there it was without one
these numbers are for great reason the
benefits of having a cell phone and
particularly a smart phone is having
turn-by-turn directions it’s having
reviews of products when you’re already
at the store we turn to our cell phones
to organize our days to keep us in touch
with friends and family I even have some
students who insist that their cell
phone is their preferred method for
writing their essays I understand these
things that I’m also realistic now cell
phones have the potential for all of
these things that’s not always the
ultimate outcome and when it comes down
to it having this number of self
out there doesn’t actually eliminate the
number of people that don’t know we’re
brown or we’re chocolate milk comes them
even though it probably should so I’m
not here today to demonize phones or to
blame them for the different problems in
our society but what I am here to do is
to share my observations and my
experiences from being in this
technological minority as many of you
could probably guess not having a cell
phone so really weird at first moving to
a new country is extremely difficult and
challenging it’s also beautiful and
rewarding beyond measure but it’s very
difficult and I want you to imagine
actually having to meet anybody because
it’s a small rural farming town in
northern Michigan so imagine going from
a community like this one to the one
here in Santo Domingo when culture shock
was that it’s worse for me I could not
use my phone to help alleviate that
culture shock I couldn’t use it to help
me translate from Spanish to English I
couldn’t use it to help me navigate the
busy streets and while this was really
uncomfortable at first it soon became
more than just a discomfort and began to
feel really isolating I felt the deficit
in my ability to function as an employee
at school where professional
communications would be sent through a
group chats or whatsapp rather than
through email I realize just how often
friends and co-workers would have social
gatherings to which I’d like to think I
would have been invited to if I could
see the text that was sent to my now
non-existent phone and I also felt the
frustration from friends and family
members from home who often communicated
feelings of frustration that I never
seem to be able to respond to them
quickly enough or frequently enough so I
started internalizing all these things
and people would tell me that I just
needed to be found that I you know
something that I needed or that I was
even irresponsible for not having a
phone and I understand
could have helped alleviate many of
these things but I couldn’t help but
wonder many things then one question I
asked was is my cell phone
really the only thing keeping my
relationships with the people in my life
alive and there was one question in
particular that grew which was why do I
feel devalued for not having a cell
phone
I felt really lost and I carried that
question with me for a very long time
and it took me many many many months of
observing and reflecting but I finally
got to the point where when people would
ask me why I didn’t have a cell phone my
answer became less and less because it
was stolen and it became more and more
that I was simply happy or not having
one I noticed that my productivity
improved my patience with people
improved for a long time my cell phone
had been an unrecognized source of
anxiety because up until then I was
never truly able to disconnect from
social situations and as an introvert
that’s extremely important for my mental
and emotional well-being I also felt
that well I still don’t communicate with
my friends and family back home as often
as it should sorry mom I do feel like
the interactions I do have a more
meaningful because for example if I wish
someone a happy birthday at home they
know it’s because I remember that day it
was important to me and I didn’t have to
rely on the notification from Facebook
telling me to remember that day and so
after a long time my question started to
evolve and it changed and it became a
change from why do I feel devalued to
what are the values I see that other
people are trying to add to their lives
by using their cell phones I started
observing constantly and I came up with
several conclusions and the first and
most common reason and the one that I
was always the most guilty of is simply
using your phone to hide or to avoid
what I didn’t have
cellphone to do just that I noticed just
how often the people around me would do
that and there were so many times that I
would be in a conversation with someone
to be left watching them use their phone
I would look up in restaurants and I’d
be the only one not looking at a cell
phone screen not just being in the
restaurant now looking down not looking
at my screen but when students at school
even when I would see them using their
phones that was often to avoid getting
to work but then I would also see
teachers and staff meetings and they
would be on their cell phones while
complaining about how the students
couldn’t pay attention and it’s
incredible because what we need to
realize is that when we choose not to
come to terms with our boredom with
impatience with awkwardness with all
those feelings that we perceive as being
negative when we don’t exercise those
muscles we lose the ability to use them
and they go limp this is a scene very
familiar and that’s in order to get a
view of the stage it can feel like an
absolute battleground as a photographer
at these events sometimes I feel
incapable of doing my job because I’m
constantly having to work around
people’s phones and sometimes even an
iPad screen I under arts degree was in
graphic design and photography and so I
do understand the drawing of photography
in order to capture a moment but we also
understand the value of being somewhere
in person and experience and
experiencing it in real life so for
example this TED talk each of you has
chosen to purchase the ticket and to be
here in real life even though these will
be available online for free but each of
you came here early in the morning on a
Saturday you’re in these seats and you
wanted to see firsthand what it
our school community has to offer the
world so why do we take photos
excessively to the point of
inconveniencing others or ultimately
missing the experience ourselves instead
of ask people who are doing just that
why do you feel the need to do so and
often the answer is because it’s
important it’s something that I want to
remember and ultimately they it’s
something that they feared that they’ll
forget what they wanna do is they’re
trying to capture those moments and keep
them even if they’re not exactly living
them take a look at this room and what
you’ll see is the home of a person who
has obsessive compulsive hoarding
disorder the environmental mental and
genetic processes that go into a
disorder of this type is extremely
complex and each person experiences this
disorder in a different way popularly
collected materials between many of
these cases were newspapers and when
they were asked why do you collect
something so mundane that many of us
might even overlook the response is
shockingly similar and they say that
they feel if they keep that newspaper
that they’re somehow able to better
remember what was going on that day in
their life and they fear that if they
don’t take that newspaper if they get
rid of it but there’s somehow letting go
of something that they won’t remember it
well they also fear forgetting so what I
encourage you to do is although we all
fear forgetting especially those most
important moments you need to trust your
mind that if you’re actually
experiencing something it is something
that you will remember and so please
take your photos but don’t trade what is
your real experience for what’s only
just two keepsake another thing that I
hear very often when I ask people why
they’re using their phone excessively
and that’s you know this is for
Instagram this is for Facebook this is
for you know insert social media here
and I understand this because social
media remains my primary way of
communicating with friends and family
back home for example this is my nephew
Austin and since I’ve been abroad
unfortunately I missed his birth I
missed his entire just about his entire
first year of life and just last weekend
I miss his first birthday party and this
saddens me greatly but one of the
beautiful things of social media is that
even though he lives 3202 kilometers
away I can still feel like I’m a part of
his life and I can see and watch him
grow but I also understand from talking
with his really tired mom that what I
see us a social media filter I don’t
have to see the Tooting fevers the
sleepless nights the dirty diapers the
temper tantrums and all of the other
reasons why I don’t have children its
natural for us to try and project their
best selves on social media but the
problem happens when what we’re
projecting is different than what we’re
living and then the challenge becomes
trying to prove who you are rather than
just be or live who we are we post a
photo about ourselves working out so we
can prove to others that we work out we
post our best selfie out of 40 to prove
how good we can look and we try to
convince everyone that that’s how we
look all the time and we’ll post a photo
of the dinner we cooked last night to
prove how good we are at cooking even if
it tasted terrible those a study
conducted by the the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine and they
did a study about the effects of social
media and one of their studies concluded
that the more often a person was two
more hours a person reported rather
being on social media the more likely
they were also to report feelings of
depression and anxiety and that there is
the paradox of social media where we
feel that we can share whatever we want
whenever but often what we trade is
vulnerability we live in a constant
state of connection but at the same time
feel disconnected I still remember to
the state a phone number that I needed
to call to reach my friend coil because
if we wanted to talk we had to actually
dial the number on our landline phones
and have a conversation when I say that
to students now they tell me that
they’ve got feelings of fear or anxiety
even at the prospect of having to call
someone on the phone or even have to
talk to someone in real life other
actions are getting shorter they’re
getting less vulnerable and what I want
us all to realize is that social media
and our cell phones are altering the way
that we interact with one another and
this technology grew so quickly and so
pervasively that we probably didn’t even
realize just how much on snapchat it’s
notorious for having being able to send
really short pieces of information at a
time
Twitter limits your content to two
hundred and eighty characters a new
feature of snapchat now is something
called streaks and for those of you who
aren’t snapchat users for each day that
you connect with someone on the media
you earn a day in your streak and so
this has become something that people
are very proud of they want to continue
their streaks for as long as possible
and so students have reported to me that
when they lay in bed at night they
realize oh my gosh I’m going to lose my
street I haven’t talked to this person
today I need to do so so in a panic and
without having to bother getting up and
turning on the light they’ll take a
photo like this one a black screen and
send that to the roads they look like
best friends with a two hundred three
days streak but what are they really
saying to each other and really is it
any wonder why this human being might
feel
Lane feeling the pressure of having to
communicate with someone but not getting
any of the benefits that a more
meaningful social interaction could have
provided the future of cell phones is
really understanding that they’re not
going anywhere
and as far as I can tell technology like
Apple watches or Google glasses making
it even more convenient more integrated
in our lives instead what we need to do
is as individuals and as a society we
need to consider more safe and
responsible ways of using our technology
to better our lives we need to start
changing our mindset and more closely
connecting consider cell phone usage to
that of dieting or physical exercise and
only eat cookies every meal of every day
there’s no one on earth that would
recommend that as a healthy diet and
that’s because the key is balance we
need to understand when we need to draw
their lines and when these wonderful
things are not so wonderfully affecting
our health what is what we’re saying to
each other really just black phone
screens it took me one year and four
months of personal observations and
reflections to decide that once again
having a phone was the correct decision
for me
they even now I have a cell phone but
it’s not data enabled because that’s not
something I need every hour of every day
I know that I don’t need it all the time
it’s not healthy for me well I don’t
suggest or I understand that many of you
guys this isn’t a great option for you
to get rid of your phone that might be
too big of a jump you can start really
simply and reflect and consider why it
is that you’re taking out your phone are
you hiding or avoiding are you holding
memories you’re afraid that you’ll
forget something or are you projecting
your life rather than simply living it
so I’ll encourage you guys to be
participants and observers so use your
phones use social media take take
pictures
play Angry Birds when you’re bored in
the grocery store line but also consider
why it is that you’re doing that and
also consider all the things that you
could potentially be sacrificing each
and every time you take out your phone
and one last thing that you can do is
the next time you leave your cell phone
and lose it in the cushions of your
couch maybe you could just let it stay
lost at least for a little while thank
you
[Applause] [Music]
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